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Please help - Car being serviced -seems very expensive!!
CyrillSneer - 7/12/04 at 12:17 PM

I was recommended this site by Mango Bob at Avforums.

Two things:

1) Can anybody recommend a good car garage in west london?

2) Took my car in for a service and MOT yesterday to Dees of wimbledon, Ford Puma 1.7 (98) 35,000 miles

I knew it wouldn't be cheap as it keeps stalling (i think idle control valve needs cleaning) and clonking round corners. However:

service: £195
MOT: £42

Brake fluid: £89
Cambelt: £288
Check stalling £72
Front tyres: £130
Front healights: £28
CVjoint/gate £207.88
Rear Brake sensor (app sezied up?) £258.76

All that + VAT!!!!!

Seems very high and i dont know what i am talking about so i can argue with them (GOD i hate that)

Any advice would be VERY appreciated.

JoelP - 7/12/04 at 12:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by CyrillSneer
1) Can anybody recommend a good car garage in west london?


many users are down in west london, so someone will undoubtedly have a good recommendation.
quote:

2) Took my car in for a service and MOT yesterday to Dees of wimbledon, Ford Puma 1.7 (98) 35,000 miles

I knew it wouldn't be cheap as it keeps stalling (i think idle control valve needs cleaning) and clonking round corners. However:

service: £195
MOT: £42

Brake fluid: £89
Cambelt: £288
Check stalling £72
Front tyres: £130
Front healights: £28
CVjoint/gate £207.88
Rear Brake sensor (app sezied up?) £258.76

All that + VAT!!!!!


im not sure of london prices, but MOTs are 30 quid up here. I doubt the cambelt needs doing at 38k, however, some people like to be safe. £89 for brake fluid? thats a DIY job, an hour tops with an easybleed kit. check stalling, well, diagnostic work is always the hardest, so that might not be to bad. for tyres, i always get 2nd hand part worn tyres, 15 quid a pop and usually about 50% tread left. pay the money and make the choice i guess... what do the headlights need doing? is it just alignment? the cv joint and rear brake sensor seem quite steep as well.

i might point out im not a mechanic, but i have had a lot of cars go wrong!


quote:

Seems very high and i dont know what i am talking about so i can argue with them (GOD i hate that)

Any advice would be VERY appreciated.


yup, i hate being in an argument where they are quoting facts and figures you cant disprove...

all the best.

ned - 7/12/04 at 01:55 PM

mackie has a 1.7 puma i think, he might know, also conrod is in the west london area and might have an idea on prices/where to go. the 1.7 has the yamaha derived vvc stuff on it, not sure if this makes the servicing more expensive, again mackie might know..

Ned.

CyrillSneer - 7/12/04 at 03:12 PM

just phoned my insurance company to see if they can recommend a local garage - "not unless you make a claim"

which is annoying

Jasper - 7/12/04 at 04:57 PM

U2U theconrodkid .... he'll know

[Edited on 7/12/04 by Jasper]

ChrisW - 7/12/04 at 06:25 PM

Or wave some cash under his nose and I'm sure the work will get done...

Chris

john_p_b - 7/12/04 at 06:39 PM

please tell me u didn't take it to main dealer for service?

the actual service and mot price seems pretty standard but the additional parts seem insane!

brake fluid would have took about 30 minutes to change and used about 6 quid of materials (brake fluid)

cam belt, price doesn't seem that bad really for saying you are down south.

check stalling, they will have took it for a drive which they do anyway on roadtest and plugged the pc into it to check the ecu......all in all about 10 minutes work and £0.00 parts used!

tyres....always shop around!

headlights - depends what was done, if it was just adjustment it shoulda been in with the service!!

cv joint - parts no more than 50 quid and job shoulda taken at worst 1.5 hours.

rear brake sensor? not sure what sensor could seize up to be honest but i know the puma did have a problem with the rear calipers seizing which ford actually had a recall on so maybe worth looking in to and see if yours was covered under the recall.

all i can think is the labour charge was very high. the above really is a bit rough, i've been out of the retail motor trade for a couple of years now but i wouldn't have thought prices had jumped THAT much!

cheers
john

Metal Hippy - 7/12/04 at 06:44 PM

£65 an hour up here in the Midlands at the VW place I work at...

I imagine it'll be a lot more down there...

DavidM - 7/12/04 at 06:49 PM

MOT is now about £40, it has just gone up again.

I had a full service on a 2.0 Zetec Mondeo including plugs, cambelt, new water pump and fluids for £300 incl. VAT. That was in July so wouldn't be much different now, so I think it is very expensive.

I can't think of any car that will take 89 pounds worth of brake fluid.

Pirelli P6000's are about £130 a pair fitted and balanced so that seems fair unless they fitted crossply remoulds, (remember them?).

Mind you, I don't live in London.

derf - 7/12/04 at 07:48 PM

Don't feel bad I am waiting for my car to come back from the shop too, I had a wheel bearing take a dump on me, and I lost control of the car, no major damage except to the drivers side suspension. The cost is over $800US for both wheel bearings, spindles, rear drum pads, replace all the bushings on the drivers side rear, and the control arms.

stephen_gusterson - 7/12/04 at 08:41 PM

north london vauxhall dealer quoted my mum 78 an hr

atb

steve

CyrillSneer - 8/12/04 at 10:58 AM

about the same labour rates as this garage.

How do people go about finding a good local garage? (west london)

ned - 8/12/04 at 11:33 AM

ask the conrod kid as said above! he's near uxbridge..

fozzie might have some suggestions, walton/weybridge way..

Ned.

skinny - 8/12/04 at 11:44 AM

i don't know how many hours it took, but for my local (i thought friendly) garage to:

-replace rear bushes (which i bought myself),
-Replace a headlight (because the adjuster was broken),
-MOT,
-tune the engine (that's what i asked for, on the service bill it said 'check the tune of engine' which probably means they plugged a sensor up the exhaust and said ok)
-change 4 spark plugs (even tho i fitted decent ones myself only last year)
-replace a rear brake bulb

cost me just under £400!!! for a f***ing fiat cinquecento!

rather conviniently, they didn't give me a breakdown on the hours...

[Edited on 8/12/04 by skinny]

stephen_gusterson - 8/12/04 at 03:01 PM

four years ago, I had a mazda 323f as a company car.

It had a broken front fog light. nowt special.

cost 220 for the foglight, and 293 all in fitted!

wife curbed an alloy - cost 450 for the ONE alloy and 150 for a tyre.

a guy at work has a broken backshell on a laguna mirror - its just the painted bit thats broken - not the glass or anything.

250 quid


cars are really expensive when they go wrong.

mackie - 8/12/04 at 03:51 PM

Might be a bit late but here I go.
I just had my 5 year major service on my 1999 Puma 1.7 including:

Major service (all fluids and filters apart from brake fluid)
Cam belt + aux belt change (should be done at 5 years or 80,000 miles)
Gearbox driveshaft oil seal replaced
Rear suspension bushes replaced with poweflex polybushes (pig of a job)
Brake fluid change
Diagnose and fix faulty hazard lights

That cost £600 or thereabouts. I was quoted £400 ish for just the major service and cambelt/auxiliary belt change before they discovered the other problems.

I went to Pumabuild who are a specialist and they do the belt change for around £200, my local ford garage quoted roughly the same.
The brake fluid sounds expensive to me, cost me £25.

I'm afraid I couldn't comment on the ABS sensor or CV joint costs but both seem rather steep.

Unfortunately it's a big service and it was never going to be cheap. I'd recommend taking it to pumabuild (pumabuild.co.uk) in future, it's not a long drive to Brum from west london.